


kalopsia

by hollow_city



Series: broken hearts & twisted minds [2]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Dreams, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 11:11:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11553978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollow_city/pseuds/hollow_city
Summary: perhaps it was a dream, she thought. perhaps if she pinched herself, she would wake up. but she didn't want to wake up.[in which barbara dreams of a world that will never be.]





	kalopsia

**Author's Note:**

> when i first started writing this it was from steph's perspective but then halfway through i realized i was totally writing babs' perspective.

_**Perhaps it was a dream, she thought. Perhaps if she pinched herself, she would wake up. But she didn't want to wake up. She wanted to stay in this dream world where**_ nothing hurt, and everything was fine. In this dream, everyone lives and she doesn't have to bury any more of her family.

She didn't want to pinch herself because deep in her mind, she knew she would wake up. 

But there, she saw a Dick Grayson who still felt openly and trusted with his whole heart. A Jason Todd who wasn't afraid of dark, tight spaces and still smiled with his eyes. A Tim Drake who accepted affection without question and actually took care of himself properly. A Damian Wayne who was still prickly but understood what it was like to be a child; who knew what it really meant to give and receive love. 

A Cassandra Cain who still understood everyone she came across but also understood what it was like to have thoughts and words come easily and to live for herself. A Stephanie Brown whose sense of family wasn't stunted and who didn't take each  _I Love You_ with a grain of salt. 

An Alfred Pennyworth who didn't age too quickly and didn't silently accept each  _See You Later_ as the final goodbye. A Leslie Thompkins who didn't attempt to sever attachments as soon as possible for fear of watching that person end up in her clinic and then being lowered six feet beneath the ground.

(And maybe there, her father slept more and didn't run the risk of simply dying of stress, but that just didn't seem very likely.)

And most importantly, a Bruce Wayne with any hope left inside of him. Any life left in those once bright eyes. A Bruce Wayne who could accept that some things in life are good without consequence; good without a catch. 

And maybe in that dream, her legs functioned properly and her spine worked the way it was built to. But maybe they don't because the way she was floating amongst her family as if she were living on cloud nine, she couldn't quite tell. But if she could think for herself, she wouldn't know if she would want them to.

The dream, though, the  _heaven,_ would not last. Because no matter how much she wanted it and how hard she tried, she would wake up, and she would shift from her bed to her chair, and she would accept what she had been given.

And she would appreciate what she still had. 


End file.
